Shinya Aoki said he was conserving his energy as he prepared to go five rounds. But the Japanese legend needed little more than a single round to submit lightweight Kotetsu Boku and add a new belt to his collection.

The title fight headlined today’s “ONE FC 8: Kings and Champions” event at Singapore Indoor Stadium in Kallang. It streamed as part of an online pay-per-view.

Boku, who defeated Aoki teammate Zorobabel Moreira to win the title back in October, simply had no answer for the submission specialist.

In the first round, Aoki, DREAM’s reigning lightweight champ, scored a quick takedown, delivered punches from the back, torqued a neck crank, delivered knees to the head while in north-south position, and then closed out the round with a series of kicks to the face while trying to secure an armbar.

Boku barely had time to catch his breath during the flurry of activity, but he survived the round. However, after Aoki scored a takedown early in the second round, the ending soon followed. Aoki eventually took the kickboxer’s back, secured a deep rear-naked choke and forced a tap-out at the 2:01 mark of the round.

It was a methodical, dominant and very familiar performance for the 29-year-old.

“This championship is my whole blood and everyone’s behind me,” said Aoki, who fought back tears in his post-fight interview.

Aoki (33-6), who’s currently ranked No. 11 in the USA TODAY Sports/MMAjunkie.com MMA lightweight rankings, is now 10-1 since an April 2010 Strikeforce title loss to Gilbert Melendez. Boku (20-8-2), meanwhile, suffers just his second loss in his past eight fights.

Larson survives Manhoef in co-headliner

Brock Larson’s co-headliner got off to an inauspicious start, and in the first round of his bout with fellow middleweight Melvin Manhoef, he was literally running for his survival.

With each fighter hesitant to engage, Manhoef finally unloaded one of his trademark kicks and stunned Larson, who was dazed and immediately ran half the perimeter of the cage to escape. Manhoef eventually tackled him to the mat, but Larson clung to a leg and survived the round.

That sequence played out for the remainder of the fight, which Larson ultimately won via unanimous decision thanks to his dominance on the ground.

After both fighters were warned about stalling in the second round, Larson, a former UFC and WEC fighter, was taken to the mat. Manhoef initially threatened with ground and pound, including some soccer kicks to the head, but the Strikeforce vet ultimately gave up dominant position. Larson then threatened with a deep armbar that was cut short by the end of the round.

Larson, though, dominated the remainder of the action. After taking Manhoef’s back and complaining about his opponent holding his glove, Larson dragged the fight to the mat and unloaded dozens of elbows and punches. A bloodied Manhoef gave the thumbs up and signaled to the ref he was OK to continue, but the one-sided beatdown continued for the remainder of the fight and ultimately earned Larson the judges’ nod.

Larson (37-7) has now won four straight fights while Manhoef (27-10-1) snaps a three-fight win streak he had hoped would earn him a UFC contract.

Belingon, Ueda advance in bantamweight grand prix

ONE FC’s world bantamweight grand prix now has two finalists following Masakatsu Ueda’s submission win over Jens Pulver and Kevin Belingon’s TKO victory over Thanh Vu.

Pulver (27-18-1), a former UFC champ who brought the tournament some star power, dodged submissions attempts and his opponent’s mount position in the first round. He then scored a takedown and threatened with an armbar in the second round, but after improving his positioning, Ueda (17-2-2) reclaimed a dominant top position and unloaded a series of stinging punches and elbows from the top. With Pulver bloodied, Ueda methodically transitioned to a fight-stopping d’arce choke, which halted the bout at the 3:52 mark of the round.

Ueda, a former Shooto champion, has now seven of his past eight fights.

He’ll fight in the grand prix final later this year against Belingon (11-2), who easily handled Vu (3-2) and stopped him with a second-round TKO. The 25-year-old Filipino also knocked out Yusup Saadulaev in the opening round of the tourney.

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